Elections

Attendance on Wednesday, or whatever day the results are announced, is optional for high school students at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, families were told.One of New York City’s elite private schools told families on Thursday that “students who feel too emotionally distressed” the day after Election Day will be excused from classes, and that psychologists will be available during the week to provide counseling.In a section of an email to members of the school’s community headed “Election Day support,” Stacey Bobo, principal of the upper school at the institution, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, said that it “acknowledges that this may be a high-stakes and emotional time for our community.”“No matter the election outcome,” she wrote, the school “will create space to provide students with the support they may need.”No homework will be assigned on Election Day, the email said, and no student assessments will take place on Wednesday. Excused absences will be allowed on Wednesday or whatever day the election results are announced for students who feel unable to “fully engage in classes.” Gwen Rocco, a spokeswoman for the school, declined to comment on the email.Fieldston’s upper school, in Riverdale, a leafy section of the Bronx, includes grades nine through 12. The school also has two elementary schools, one of which is in Manhattan, and a middle school on the Riverdale campus. About 1,700 students attend the schools, and tuition for all grades is $65,540 a year.The school, which was founded in the late 19th century on principles of social justice, was divided by infighting over pro-Palestinian student activism in the spring, leading to Joe Algrant’s resignation as head of the school in August. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The model and television host dressed as the alien from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film for her annual New York City costume party.This Halloween, Heidi Klum is wearing an adult diaper.It’s a first for her, the model and former “Project Runway” host said.Ms. Klum, who has become known for her elaborate Halloween costumes, transformed into the character E.T. this year for her annual bash held at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City.The costume, inspired by the alien from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” included a glowing fingertip and motorized headpiece with a movable mouth and eyes, controlled remotely by a member of Ms. Klum’s team. The red carpet was also built several feet in the air, so when Ms. Klum stood on the ground behind it, her brown, knobby, otherworldly toes appeared to be on the floor.“Maybe I never need to use the diaper, but at least that way I don’t have to think about it,” Ms. Klum said, explaining that the look, is difficult to put on and take off.The idea for the costume came to Ms. Klum a few weeks after last year’s event, she said, explaining that “E.T.” was one of her favorite movies as a child. (Coincidentally, Janelle Monáe, another celebrity with a fondness for Halloween, also dressed as E.T. this year.)“They have no genitals,” Ms. Klum said of the aliens in Mr. Spielberg’s movie. “I like the whole idea of, like, we’re all the same.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Senator JD Vance of Ohio criticized what he called “gender transition craziness,” spoke dismissively of women he claimed were “celebrating” their abortions and said that studies “connect testosterone levels in young men with conservative politics” during a three-hour episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” that was released on Thursday.Mr. Vance criticized transgender and nonbinary people at length during the conversation, saying that he would not be surprised if he and his running mate, former President Donald J. Trump, won what he called “the normal gay guy vote.” And he suggested that children in upper-middle-class white families saw becoming trans as a way to improve their odds of getting into Ivy League colleges.“If you are a, you know, middle-class or upper-middle-class white parent, and the only thing that you care about is whether your child goes into Harvard or Yale, like, obviously, that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper-middle-class kids,” Mr. Vance told Mr. Rogan. “But the one way that those people can participate in the D.E.I. bureaucracy in this country is to be trans.”Mr. Vance hit on a number of culture-war flashpoints and conservative cultural grievances as he spoke for more than three hours on Mr. Rogan’s immensely popular podcast, the latest in a series of interviews that he and Mr. Trump have done on podcasts aimed at young men. Mr. Rogan’s show is likely to be one of Mr. Vance’s most-watched campaign appearances: Mr. Rogan has 14.5 million followers on Spotify and 17.6 million on YouTube, many of them young men.At one point, Mr. Vance suggested that liberal women were publicly celebrating their abortions — “baking birthday cakes and posting about it” on social media — a notion Mr. Rogan pushed back on.“I think there’s very few people that are celebrating,” Mr. Rogan said.Mr. Rogan challenged Mr. Vance on abortion rights.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Spencer Leach opens our solving weekend.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — One of the things that really floats my boat when it comes to solving crosswords is the discovery of entries that are making their debuts in the New York Times Crossword. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen certain entries over and over again, so when something new and exciting comes along it catches my attention.Sometimes I try to guess which entries are debuts and, not to brag or anything, I am usually wrong. I chalk that up to the fact that I write only two columns a week now, so I don’t see all the entries anymore. But I was surprised that 13A, for example, was not a debut. (I look these things up on xwordinfo.com.) The entry has appeared only once before, in this puzzle from April, and in the same position, oddly enough. But just the presence of the entry and its rarity was enough to tell me that I was in for a fun solve.Today’s puzzle, constructed by Spencer Leach, is full of lively entries, seven of which are debuts. His puzzle put a smile on my face — a lovely distraction in an uncertain time.What are your thoughts on debut entries? Do you ever wonder whether a word or phrase is new to the Crossword or marvel at how fresh the grid feels?Tricky Clues16A. The [Small scale business?] in today’s puzzle is a DELI, where things are measured on a countertop scale.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Quizás te sorprendas al saber que algunas personas son consideradas como basura.Hasta este momento, la estrella musical más escuchada de esta década, nació y se crió en un pequeño pueblo de Puerto Rico llamado Vega Baja. Es posible que Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, conocido en el mundo como Bad Bunny, no hubiera podido capturar la imaginación del mundo si hubiera nacido y crecido en otro lugar que no fuera Puerto Rico, también ahora conocido como “una isla flotante de basura” según el comediante Tony Hinchcliffe.Pero es poco probable.Verás, el pueblo vecino se llama Vega Alta, de donde proviene la familia Miranda. Resulta que el panorama desde Vega Alta es una gran perspectiva para escribir un musical sobre uno de los fundadores de nuestra nación, que creció en otra isla en medio del mismo océano.Si manejas 30 minutos al este desde Vega Alta, estarás en San Juan, donde uno de nosotros comenzó una carrera musical muy diferente y terminaría vendiendo más de 70 millones de discos.Podrías llenar el Madison Square Garden todas las noches durante varias décadas con todos los fanáticos de los artistas nacidos, criados o que se nutrieron en Puerto Rico. Como ha dicho la cantante Lucecita Benítez en sus conciertos, si levantas una piedra en Puerto Rico, conseguirás un artista. Nuestras pequeñas islas tienen una rica cultura e historia artística que fue ignorada y subvalorada durante demasiado tiempo.Nos guste o no, y es obvio que a algunas personas realmente no les gustamos, los hilos de la cultura puertorriqueña están entretejidos en nuestra historia estadounidense compartida. Esa historia habla en voz alta y con orgullo a decenas de millones de estadounidenses.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Travis John Branson was part of a conspiracy that killed 3,600 birds, prosecutors said. He also trafficked and sold bird parts on the black market.A Washington man who killed hundreds of eagles and hawks in Montana that he later helped traffic and sell on the black market was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Thursday, prosecutors said.From 2015 to 2021, the man, Travis John Branson, 49, of Cusick, Wash., traveled to the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana to help kill hundreds of birds in a “killing spree,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana said. In addition to his sentence of three years and 10 months in federal prison, Mr. Branson was ordered to pay $777,250 in restitution, prosecutors said.“Branson went on self-described ‘killing sprees’ for thousands of eagles and hawks,” Jesse Laslovich, the U.S. attorney for the District of Montana, said in a statement. Mr. Laslovich added that Mr. Branson “butchered” the birds “and sold the parts and feathers for profit on the black market.”Mr. Branson, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and trafficking charges in March, killed at least 118 eagles and 107 hawks himself, according to investigators who traced the killings to Mr. Branson through text messages. In total, Mr. Branson worked with others to kill about 3,600 birds, prosecutors said.In December, prosecutors indicted Mr. Branson and a co-conspirator, Simon Paul, who at one point lived in St. Ignatius, Mont. The two worked together to shoot, traffic and sell hundreds of birds, according to court records. Mr. Paul was also charged with conspiracy and wildlife trafficking charges in December but was a fugitive as of Thursday, the U.S. attorney’s office said.Court records quoted text messages and cited PayPal transactions that showed that Mr. Branson had sent photos and received text messages and payment for a golden eagle tail feather set.“Got that thang from Simon,” a buyer texted Mr. Branson, referring to feathers Mr. Paul had sent. “And the mirror feathers. Tnks.”In March 2021, law enforcement officers stopped Mr. Branson and recovered from his vehicle a golden eagle’s severed feet connected to long, obsidian black talons and feathers. Mr. Branson and Mr. Paul also killed deer to lure eagles to the area, court records said.From 2009 until 2021, Mr. Branson made between $180,000 and $360,000 by selling eagles’ feathers and parts on the black market, prosecutors said. How much Mr. Branson sold between 2009 until 2015 was not immediately clear.Lawyers for Mr. Branson and Mr. Paul did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.Bald eagles, which were among the birds Mr. Branson and others killed, are revered in the United States as a national symbol.“We are going to feel the impacts of the Flathead Reservation’s raptor loss for years to come,” Mike Dolson, the chairman of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said in a statement. “Eagles are not only a treasured and important part of the Reservation’s ecosystem, but they also have a profound place in C.S.K.T. cultural and spiritual practices.” More

How Donald Trump’s allies are honing their message to young men in the campaign’s final days.For Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who is the founder of the pro-Trump group Turning Point USA, the most frightful Halloween trick of all might be this: Women are outvoting men.“Early vote has been disproportionately female,” he wrote yesterday on X, warning that, if men stay home, Vice President Kamala Harris will be elected.“If you want a vision of the future if you don’t vote, imagine Kamala’s voice cackling, forever,” Kirk added. “Men need to GO VOTE NOW.”It was a post that managed to both bemoan and explain a dynamic that has come to define the country’s first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion. The gender gap between Harris and former President Donald Trump has grown large enough that just the fact of high turnout among women is enough to spook Republicans — and yet they keep talking about women in ways that may further intensify that gap.So Kirk may well be right that they need to scare up more men.And that’s exactly what he and Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, seemed to be trying to do this morning when they appeared together near High Point University in North Carolina. Trump has opened an enormous lead among young men, and I traveled to High Point to hear Vance and Kirk’s message in a space with lots of them.“I think you guys have a lot to lose,” Vance said.“Do you want a person like Kamala Harris negotiating in private rooms with people like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?” Vance asked, not mentioning the fact that Trump has praised both dictators. “Or do you want a person like Donald Trump actually sticking up for the United States of America?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Está dirigido a los votantes latinos del disputado estado de Pensilvania, que tiene una considerable población puertorriqueña.La campaña de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris publicó el jueves un nuevo anuncio dirigido a ganarse a los votantes puertorriqueños y otros votantes latinos recordándoles que un comediante en un mitin de Trump desdeñó a Puerto Rico calificándola de una “isla de basura”.El anuncio, titulado “Somos más”, está narrado en español por un hombre con acento puertorriqueño que utiliza coloquialismos boricuas. El narrador aborda directamente el comentario de la “isla de basura” que el comediante Tony Hinchcliffe hizo el domingo como parte de un acto de apertura para el expresidente Donald Trump en el Madison Square Garden de Nueva York.“No somos basura, somos más”, dice, y añade: “El 5 de noviembre, Trump comprenderá que la basura de unos es el tesoro de otras”.El anuncio forma parte de una compra publicitaria de 370 millones de dólares, según la campaña de Harris. Está dirigido a la población latina del disputado estado de Pensilvania, que tiene una considerable población puertorriqueña.El anuncio se emitirá durante las populares telenovelas de las principales cadenas en español de EE. UU., Univisión y Telemundo, así como en WAPA, una cadena puertorriqueña que emiten muchos proveedores de cable de EE. UU. También aparecerá en plataformas digitales como YouTube, Snapchat y el sitio web de El Nuevo Día, el mayor diario de Puerto Rico, que respaldó públicamente a Harris el martes.Además de presentar a puertorriqueños notables, el anuncio incluye un fragmento de sonido de las protestas callejeras en la isla. El cántico —“Somos más y no tenemos miedo”— fue popular durante el verano de 2019, cuando las protestas masivas provocaron la dimisión del gobernador Ricardo A. Rosselló.Un chat de grupo privado filtrado entre el gobernador Rosselló y sus colaboradores reveló que se habían burlado de los puertorriqueños, utilizando a menudo un lenguaje soez y ofensivo.Patricia Mazzei es la jefa de la corresponsalía en Miami, que cubre Florida y Puerto Rico. Más de Patricia Mazzei More